The present invention pertains to hospital intravenous (I.V.) supports and more particularly to a hospital I.V. pole adjunct for use in supporting the multitude of containers for palliative preparations, monitors and other hospital equipment needed for the treatment of critically ill patients.
Hospital patients have long been given intravenous (I.V.) fluids from bottles or other containers suspended from hospital I.V. poles mounted to the patient's bed, operating table or gurney or from free standing I.V. poles. The poles generally each have two arms and provision is generally made for mounting two I.V. poles, one to each side, just forward of the patient's head. In addition to I.V. fluid containers, the poles are used to support various medical devices such as arterial pressure monitors and infusion pumps which are adapted to hang from or clamp onto the I.V. poles.
The I.V. poles are adequate for most patients since most patients do not need a large number of different I.V. fluids and devices. In intensive care, in surgery and in transporting patients to and from surgery, however, the opposite is often the case. A cardiac intensive care patient, for example, might need separate I.V.s for blood, dopamine, nitroprusside, hyperalimentation fluid, antibiotics, and an insulin drip in addition to monitors and other devices. In that situation, a nest of intravenous fluid tubing is created which obscures the view of monitors and devices on the I.V. poles, decreases the efficiency of nursing procedures and creates a danger of confusion regarding the various I.V. fluids. Additional free standing I.V. poles may be used to alleviate this problem to some extent, however, such freestanding I.V. poles are not practical while the patient is being transported, are relatively expensive to maintain at all locations in the hospital where they might be needed, and are cumbersome to maneuver around a bed occupied by a critically ill patient.
I.V. poles have the additional shortcoming that I.V. fluid containers and medical devices must be individually removed and transferred to other I.V. poles or carried in hand, when the patient or the I.V. poles are moved. This shortcoming is serious, for example, where a patient has stopped breathing and must be resuscitated, intubated and placed on a respirator, since it is desirable to maintain the patient's airway from a position superior to the patient's head after first removing the I.V. poles and headboard of the patient's bed.
It is therefore highly desirable to provide an improved hospital I.V. pole adjunct.
It is also highly desirable to provide an improved hospital I.V. pole adjunct that can easily support a large number of intravenous fluid containers and medical devices.
It is yet highly desirable to provide an improved hospital I.V. pole adjunct that can be easily connected to a pair of I.V. poles.
It is further highly desirable to provide an improved hospital I.V. pole adjunct which can be easily removed from a pair of I.V. poles and transported by a person when a large number of I.V. fluid containers and medical devices are attached to the hospital I.V. pole adjunct and to a patient.
It is yet further highly desirable to provide an improved hospital I.V. pole adjunct which is readily sterilized by autoclaving.
It would finally be highly desirable to provide an improved I.V. pole adjunct which has all of the above desired features.